"Irresistible" by Adam Alter

I chose Irresistible in pursuit of a new book to read with my AP English Language class. Our current full-length texts are fiction, even though it's a nonfiction course, and I've wanted to shake up the curriculum for awhile. I thought a contemporary book about the danger of technology might be appealing, but I'm disappointed to say the book was largely a miss, mostly because it had so little to say about technology.

The book is subtitled "the rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked," which gives the impression that it's about technology (of course) and about the big businesses (presumably via behemoths like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) that manipulate natural human behavior in pursuit of profit.

Unfortunately, the book has almost nothing to say about the tech giants' predatory behavior, and relatively little to say even about technology. The book is, instead, about the psychology of behavioral addiction. And while technology-assisted addictions fall under this label, technology-related examples make up less than half of the examples Alter uses. The first third of the book is spent justifying in what ways behavioral addiction is deserving of the "addiction" label, which previously had been reserved primarily for substance abuse (alcoholism, drug addiction). This distinction is important to psychologists who must diagnose mental illnesses, but it's an unnecessary justification for most people who, I'd argue, are fairly willing to accept that behaviors can be addictive.

The second part of the book explores some elements that can make behaviors addictive: goal setting, inconsistent feedback, cliffhangers, for example. Some of that can be interesting, but in using such a huge variety of examples, Alter's point seems to be that some evolutionary advantages in the past make humans susceptible to a variety of addictive behavior today. That's fine, but it's not a particularly compelling observation about technology in the 21st century.

The ending of the book attempts to offer some solutions, but bizarrely offers a number of tech solutions to addictions that seem like they would simply substitute one tech addiction for another tech reliance, rather than get at the root of the issue. The chapter on gamification is especially problematic. At the end of the chapter, Alter does briefly acknowledge the deep criticism of gamification (it suggests things must be extrinsically made "fun" to be worthwhile, rather than focusing on self-motivation or intrinsic rewards), but then rather than dive into when gamification is or isn't appropriate, he offers a wishy-washy "it's good and bad!" to conclude. 

Even worse, his solutions overall focus on the individual user rather than on the creators of addictive tech. There's a few suggestions aimed at companies (say, turning off email between certain evening hours), but ultimately Alter argues the individual needs to steel against addiction--through awareness or maybe more technology. But if, as Alter argues, many of these behaviors are instinctual, inventing more apps and programs to treat behavioral addictions isn't really the solution. It's removing the addictions in the first place. Alter notes this, but he doesn't take it a step further by speaking to the companies themselves. A teenager today honestly can't remove himself from the world of social media and still exist as a social creature. A damning critique of social media companies' exploitation of young people would have been more interesting and useful. 

That's not to say there weren't some interesting tidbits. Though I was aware of the effectiveness of intermittent rewards, I hadn't thought of that in the context of social media--how the uncertainty over the "reward" of each post (how many "likes" will I get? how many comments?) propels users to post more. I also thought the chapter about the dangers of goal setting (the inevitable disappointment once a goal is reached; the lack of contentment) was useful in a society that prizes ambition. 

As a last point, though the book was only published in 2017, it already feels somewhat dated. There's an outsized focus on World of Warcraft, a game which I imagine is still popular, though I've never met anyone who plays. Newer apps like TikTok are completely absent. Online shopping also seems important, though it's only addressed briefly.

Ultimately, it's a disappointing book that doesn't deliver on the blurb. An excerpt here or there could be interesting, especially for someone unfamiliar with the basic human psychology behind high tech use, but otherwise it's a skip.